Heart Symbolism & Love Tokens Through History

Where Does the Heart Shape Come From?

The familiar two-lobed, pointed-bottom heart symbol looks nothing like the anatomical organ beating in your chest. So where did it come from? The answer involves ancient plants, medieval manuscripts, and centuries of artistic evolution — and scholars still debate the details.

The Silphium Seed Theory

One of the most compelling origin theories centers on silphium, a now-extinct plant from the ancient Greek colony of Cyrene in modern-day Libya. Silphium was so valuable that its image appeared on Cyrenean silver coins from the 5th and 6th centuries BCE. The plant was used as a seasoning, a medicine, and — crucially — a contraceptive and aphrodisiac, linking it directly to love and sexuality. Its seed pod bore a distinctly heart-like shape. Whether this ancient association directly influenced the medieval heart symbol remains debated, but the visual parallel is striking.

Ivy Leaves, Swan Necks, and Botanical Shapes

In medieval heraldry and manuscript illustration, the geometric heart shape typically depicted foliage — particularly ivy leaves and water-lily leaves. Ivy was associated with fidelity because it clings tenaciously to whatever it grows upon, making the ivy-leaf shape a natural candidate for a love symbol. Other scholars have noted that two swans facing each other form a heart shape with their necks, an image with deep romantic associations across European folklore.

Medieval Manuscripts and the Birth of the Love Heart

The first known depiction of a heart as a symbol of romantic love dates to approximately 1250, appearing in a miniature decorating a capital letter in the French manuscript Roman de la poire. The illustration shows a kneeling lover offering his heart to a lady. By 1305, Giotto painted an allegory of Charity presenting a heart to Christ in Padua's Scrovegni Chapel, establishing the heart as powerful visual shorthand. The familiar indented, scalloped form we know today solidified during the 14th century. By the late 1400s, the red heart appeared on playing cards as one of the four suits, and its symbolism was fixed in the Western imagination forever.

Ancient Love Tokens — The First Jewelry of Devotion

Long before the heart shape existed as a symbol, humans exchanged jewelry to declare love. The tradition of giving a physical token of romantic commitment is as old as civilization itself.

Roman Wedding Rings and Fede Rings

The custom of exchanging rings as tokens of betrothal originated with the Romans, who adapted the practice from their tradition of exchanging rings to seal business contracts. The annulus pronubus (betrothal ring) was given as a pledge of engagement. Early Roman wedding rings were made of iron, chosen to symbolize strength and permanence. Women were often given two rings — an iron ring worn at home and a gold ring worn in public. Roman fede rings depicted two clasped right hands (dextrarum iunctio), representing the marriage bond and mutual fidelity. A fede ring in the British Museum bears the engraved inscription "Te amo parum" — "I love you a little" — a bit of ancient romantic humor preserved in gold.

Posy Rings — Secret Messages in Gold

By the late medieval period, posy rings (from poesie, meaning "poetry") became the love token of choice across Western Europe. These simple gold bands carried short inscriptions — typically in French, the language of romance, or Latin. Early posy rings bore their messages on the outside, but by the 16th century, the inscriptions moved to the inner surface, where only the wearer could read them. Tender phrases like "Two hearts, one soul" and "In thee my choice, I do rejoice" turned each ring into a wearable love letter. Posy rings reached peak popularity between the 15th and 17th centuries and remain one of the most direct ancestors of modern engraved promise rings.

The Medieval Sacred Heart — Devotion Made Visible

While the secular heart symbol was emerging in courtly love poetry, a parallel tradition was developing within Christianity — one that would produce some of the most powerful heart imagery in Western art.

From Wound Devotion to Sacred Heart

The Sacred Heart devotion grew out of medieval veneration of Christ's wounds, particularly the lance wound in his side. The earliest indications appeared in the 11th and 12th centuries within Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries. The German mystic Gertrude the Great (1256–1302) was among the first to describe visions centered specifically on Christ's heart as a vessel of divine love. The devotion intensified through the 12th and 13th centuries, fueled by the spiritual fervor of Bernard of Clairvaux and Francis of Assisi.

The Visions of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

The modern form of Sacred Heart devotion crystallized in 1673 when the French Visitandine nun Margaret Mary Alacoque reported a series of visions. She described seeing Christ's heart surrounded by thorns, pierced by a wound, surmounted by a cross, and emitting brilliant light. This imagery — the flaming, thorn-crowned, wounded heart — became the standard iconographic representation that persists to this day. It transformed the heart from a simple symbol of emotion into an icon of sacrificial, redemptive love. Sacred Heart pendants and charms remain deeply meaningful devotional jewelry, worn as both a statement of faith and a reminder that love, even divine love, involves vulnerability.

The Victorian Era — Golden Age of Sentimental Jewelry

No period in history elevated love tokens to an art form quite like the Victorian era (1837–1901). Queen Victoria's own passionate love for Prince Albert set the tone for an entire culture obsessed with encoding emotion into jewelry.

Lockets — Portraits Against the Skin

Lockets reached their peak of popularity during Victoria's reign. The Queen herself wore a bracelet with eight lockets attached, each containing a lock of hair from one of her eight children. After Prince Albert's death in 1861, she wore a large mourning locket containing his photograph on one side and a lock of his hair on the other — and she wore it every day for the remaining forty years of her life. Heart-shaped lockets became the most coveted form, allowing the wearer to carry a beloved's image literally against their heart.

Acrostic Jewelry — Hidden Love Letters in Gemstones

Victorian jewelers created ingenious acrostic jewelry that spelled secret words using the first letter of each gemstone. A ring set with a Ruby, Emerald, Garnet, Amethyst, Ruby, and Diamond spelled REGARD. A DEAREST ring used Diamond, Emerald, Amethyst, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, and Topaz. The word LOVE could be encoded with Lapis lazuli, Opal, Verde (peridot), and Emerald. These pieces turned fine jewelry into a private language between lovers — invisible to anyone who did not know the code.

Hair Jewelry — Intimacy Preserved

Before the death of Prince Albert plunged the empire into mourning, hairwork was primarily a love practice, not a death practice. Giving someone a piece containing your hair was an intensely intimate gesture. Strands were woven into bracelets, set behind crystal in brooches, or coiled inside lockets. During the Romantic Period (1837–1860), a heart-shaped brooch enclosing a lover's hair was among the most personal gifts imaginable. After 1861, the same techniques were repurposed for mourning jewelry, but their origin was romantic.

Mourning Hearts — Love Beyond Death

When Victoria retreated into decades of mourning, the nation followed. Heart-shaped mourning brooches made of jet — fossilized wood from the cliffs of Whitby, Yorkshire — became almost mandatory accessories. Black enamel hearts inscribed with the name and dates of the deceased were worn on chains or pinned at the collar. These somber hearts expressed a powerful idea: that love does not end at death. The Victorian mourning heart is one of history's most poignant examples of jewelry as emotional language.

The Broken Heart — History and Meaning

A broken heart is depicted as a heart symbol split into two or more pieces, and it is one of the most universally understood metaphors in human culture. The concept of heartbreak — intense emotional pain from lost or unrequited love — appears in the literature of virtually every civilization.

In the Hebrew Bible, Psalm 34:18 says "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted." Shakespeare used the metaphor relentlessly. The medical condition Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, first described in Japan in 1990, proved that extreme emotional stress can literally cause the heart to change shape and malfunction — meaning that a broken heart is, in a very real sense, a medical reality.

As jewelry, the broken heart carries layered meanings. It can represent grief, resilience after loss, solidarity with the brokenhearted, or the beauty in emotional vulnerability. A broken heart charm is not always a symbol of sadness — in some traditions, it represents the belief that a heart that has been broken and healed becomes stronger and more capable of love than one that has never been tested.

Hearts Across Cultures

Aztec — The Heart as Cosmic Fuel

For the Aztecs, the heart (yollotli) was the seat of the soul and the source of life itself. They believed the sun god Huitzilopochtli required the offering of human hearts to sustain his journey across the sky each day. A green jade stone was placed in the mouth of the dead to represent the heart before cremation. The Aztec understanding of the heart was not romantic but cosmic — the heart was the engine of the universe, the most sacred substance in existence.

Japanese — Inome, the Wild Boar's Eye

Japan developed its own heart-shaped symbol independently of Europe. Called inome (meaning "eye of the wild boar"), this motif has decorated Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, castles, and sword guards (tsuba) since the 6th and 7th centuries CE. Rather than symbolizing love, the inome traditionally wards off evil spirits. The oldest surviving examples appear on sword guards from Japan's Kofun period, predating the European heart symbol's romantic associations by over six hundred years.

Celtic — Knotwork and Eternal Bond

Celtic culture expressed love not through a simple heart shape but through interlaced knotwork — designs with no beginning and no end, symbolizing eternity and the unbreakable nature of true bonds. The Claddagh, originating in the fishing village of Claddagh near Galway, Ireland, combines three symbols: two hands (friendship), a heart (love), and a crown (loyalty). The direction of the heart on a Claddagh ring indicates the wearer's relationship status — heart facing outward means the wearer is looking for love; heart facing inward means their heart is taken. This tradition has been practiced continuously since at least the 17th century.

Latin American Sacred Heart — Sagrado Corazón

In Mexican and Latin American folk art, the Sagrado Corazón (Sacred Heart) merges Catholic devotional imagery with indigenous artistic traditions. Milagros — small tin or silver heart-shaped votives — are pinned to saints' robes or worn as charms to petition for healing, express gratitude, or ask for protection. The flaming, thorn-encircled heart became one of the most iconic motifs in Mexican folk art, painted on everything from retablos to pottery to tattoo flash. In this tradition, the heart is simultaneously sacred, defiant, and deeply personal.

Modern Heart Jewelry — From Charm Bracelets to Everyday Symbols

The Victorian love token tradition did not vanish — it evolved. By the early 20th century, charm bracelets had replaced engraved coins as the primary form of sentimental jewelry. Soldiers in both World Wars brought back charms for their sweethearts, and by the 1950s, charm bracelets loaded with hearts, initials, and milestone markers were mainstream fashion. Each charm told a chapter of a personal love story.

Mother's Jewelry

Heart charms inscribed with "Mom" or "Mother" carry on a tradition that stretches back to Victorian lockets. Queen Victoria's own eight-locket bracelet was essentially the first "mother's charm bracelet." Today, mother's heart pendants and charms are among the most gifted jewelry categories for Mother's Day, birthdays, and new-baby celebrations. A sterling silver mom heart charm compresses a powerful declaration into a small, wearable form: you are loved, you are central, you are honored.

Friendship and Couple Tokens

The tradition of splitting a token between two people — each keeping half as proof of their bond — dates back centuries. Modern "best friend" and "couple" heart charms continue this practice. A key-and-lock heart set, where one person holds the key and the other wears the heart, is a direct descendant of medieval love tokens. These pieces work because they are inherently incomplete alone: their meaning only becomes whole when both halves are together.

Hearts in Music and Artistic Expression

The intertwining of hearts with creative expression is captured beautifully in music-themed heart jewelry — bass and treble clefs forming a heart shape, for instance. Music and love have been linked since the troubadours of 12th-century Provence composed the first secular love songs in European history. A music-heart charm honors both passions simultaneously, making it a meaningful gift for musicians and music lovers.

Heart Variations — A Visual Vocabulary of Love

Not all heart symbols carry the same meaning. Over the centuries, distinct heart variations have emerged, each with its own symbolism and emotional register.

The Celtic Heart

A heart woven from Celtic knotwork — interlaced lines with no beginning or end. It represents eternal love, the idea that a true bond cannot be broken or unraveled. Celtic heart pendants are especially meaningful as anniversary gifts because the knotwork implies that the relationship has only grown more intertwined with time.

The Sacred Heart

Depicted with flames, thorns, and often a cross, the Sacred Heart is a devotional symbol of Christ's love for humanity. It represents sacrificial love, compassion, and spiritual devotion. As a jewelry motif, it appeals both to those with deep religious conviction and to those drawn to its powerful visual language of love-through-suffering.

The Anatomical Heart

A realistic depiction of the human heart with chambers, arteries, and veins. This variation gained popularity in the 20th century as a more "honest" representation of love — raw, complex, and biological rather than stylized. Anatomical heart charms appeal to medical professionals, science enthusiasts, and anyone who prefers their symbolism unvarnished.

The Double and Triple Heart

Stacked or interlocking hearts represent interconnected lives — partners, parent and child, or close friends whose hearts are permanently linked. A triple heart charm can represent a family of three, a past-present-future timeline, or the three components of deep love: passion, intimacy, and commitment.

The Heart with Motif — Rose, Seashell, Key

Hearts combined with other symbols create layered meanings. A heart with a rose merges love with beauty and remembrance. A heart with a seashell connects love to the ocean — deep, vast, and rhythmic. A heart with a key implies trust, access, and the vulnerability of letting someone into your innermost self. These compound symbols allow the wearer to express not just that they love, but how they love.